Sustainable cities and architecture.
While we are said to be in a period of global environmental
protection and making good use of resources,
the life of buildings in Japan remains short,
and the research into conversion technology remains
in its infancy. It has been said that the main reasons
for the scrapping of buildings in Japan are not physical
or structural factors, but social and economic factors.
As cities grow, and a higher density use of the city space
becomes necessary, up to now we have continued to simply
increase the floor area ratio, tearing down old buildings
and replacing them with large highrise buildings. However,
the same methods cannot be repeated in the 21st century,
because they prevent the ability to develop a sustainable
society. A considerable amount of research has already been
done into the technology of the elements that increase the
life of individual buildings. However, with just the
development of technology to increase the life of building
structural materials, sustainable architecture cannot be
built. Only when cities are sustainable, can buildings,
which are the structural elements, become sustainable.
However, in Tokyo, because of the acute social and economic
changes, the rebuilding of city structures cannot keep up,
and only the metabolism of buildings has continued to
advance. The research topic that should be addressed by
the architectural world in Japan at the beginning of this
21st century is how to build “sustainable cities and architecture.”